What a Relief

The Wine Lady was baptized on Tuesday! I was super grateful because of it, but after being baptized, she never came back out to finish the program. We were then unable to contact her for the next few days. We finally saw her on Friday and confirmed plans with her, and she was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! She received the Holy Ghost and was just beaming. It was so pleasing to see a child of God return home. She was already so close, all we had to do was to point her in the right direction. By the way, I'd like everyone to know that I only call her the Wine Lady for privacy purposes. I'd much rather say her real name, but these emails go onto a blog, so I'd like to remain a bit discreet with investigators.

I got to see some wild turkeys for the second time this week. It is so odd to me that this coveted Thanksgiving dinner is just casually walking the streets in packs. I had to stop and get a picture. These computers don't take SD Cards, so I will include some next time!

I am not sure why, but my cough was getting really bad in the night of Christmas Eve. I decided that I would be really nice to myself and give myself an early Christmas gift, Delsym! I then didn't cough for the rest of the evening. It was so good to be free for a little while.

I no longer have Elder Stewart as my companion. My new companion is Elder Carson, and I am staying here in this same area. He is a pretty neat guy, and there is a lot that I can learn from him. He has been out for almost a year, and so he is pretty smart. He isn't too talkative, but I enjoy being around him and showing him around to all this new stuff. He is actually a district leader, and so he will soon be taking over. 

I enjoyed this Christmas a bit more than usual, because I spent much of it pondering about Jesus Christ and the things that he has done for me and you. It was a little bit hard to find time, but I was able to take a short while and think about His amazing sacrifice. I suppose you could say that I "Stand All Amazed" at the things He has done. The thing I love is that we have the ability to choose if we want to follow Him. If we are sincerely trying to do what we can, then He will take care of us, even if we mess up frequently. He loves all of us, and He personally suffered for our pains and afflictions. He doesn't want a single one of us to end up in the Telestial Kingdom. Please always keep Him in your heart and think to yourself, "What can I do in order to help Jesus Christ." If you have this mentality, you will be very well off.

I hope you all keep Christ in your hearts, even though Christmas has passed. Have a good week everyone!

Christmas Phone Call

(This is Lori posting)

I received a text Saturday from the ward mission leader letting me know that Jonathan will Facetime us Monday at 1:30 pm.  A time and a method!  We were so excited!  We tried all possible ways to ensure that we would have a good connection.  When we tried the Apple TV, the sound was delayed so we messed around with the internet and called Heather in South Korea.  The second time we called it worked pretty good.  Monday comes around and it feels like we are getting ready for a wedding or something.  We curl our hair and put on our make up.  We try Facetime again and it doesn't work very well. Then we sit around waiting for the clock to hurry and move to 1:30pm.  1:30 comes and goes. Finally at 1:50pm we get a text saying he is ready to get on and PRESTO!  There he is!

We crowded around my tiny iPhone on a selfie stick to talk with Jonathan.  The picture and sound is perfect, abeit a tiny screen to see.  He looks good!  He has gained back the 10 pounds he lost in the MTC but still has the cough.  *sigh*  We were never told the time limit so we talked for close to two hours. Towards the end it said "poor connection" so we couldn't see him anymore, but he could still see us.  Jonathan ended with a family prayer and it was a perfect way to end the call.  See you in May for Mother's Day!

Best Christmas Present Ever!

Traditional Jammies Pictures

Facetime Selfie

The Elder we know and love 

Let's Feast!

Christmas Fun with a fabulous family

*ahhhh*

We had to go to a library today to email. They don't have an SD card thing, so I can't share my pictures. I am really bummed :( I also just don't have time to email. I'll try and speed my way through. We are going to the temple really soon and I had to wait a long time to get onto a computer :P

I got to borrow a viola this week in order to prepare to play for the wine lady's baptism. It is worth 10,000 dollars and so it sounds absolutely beautiful. It was a bit hard, but I learned how to play it, and it sounds great. I hope I can get a recording to share with you, too.

I got to accompany a sister missionary with her violin at a different baptism. The song was changed three times, but we made it through alright and everyone loved it. The next day, she texted us saying she needed me again for her sacrament meeting, except we had to do a song she hadn't played before. It was O Little Town of Bethlehem. We had 15 minutes to practice, and I had to write an intro, a middle section to divide the verse, and also an ending. I don't know how I did it, but I got it all written and figured out and we performed it. I was so glad it turned out great!

I had to exchange with someone else for a day. When I got back, I realized that I left my blanket and other stuff in the car at another Elder's apartment. So that night, we closed the door and cranked the heat of the bedroom, and I slept in thermal underwear and socks. I even considered wearing socks on my hands. I actually slept alright!

I have been making us good food. I cooked up some spicy chicken, and some ground turkey and other various things. 

We got two new investigators. They are a married couple, and they are very fantastic. 

I have now officially ran out of time. I hope that I can perhaps get time later today, but it is unlikely. I am so sorry, guys. 

Have a great Christmas!

I have more time because the other missionaries messed up. 

Elder Stewart was riding his bike with me one day, and it was a bit snowy. When we turned into the church parking lot, he turned too sharply and fell off his bike. He then tried to stand up and slipped again. This created a large hole in the seam of his pants. He spent the next few days sewing it up.

We went caroling one night with other missionaries. It was kind of fun and I enjoyed the break from missionary work. I was exhausted because me and Elder Stewart spent the past two days shoveling for people. While we were caroling, an icicle fell many stories down and slammed his music out of his hand. We quickly retreated. Elder Stewart had it rough lately. 

Speaking of him, he has been transferred away, and I am devastated. He is going to a new area to train someone, while also being district leader at the same time. He has a lot of madness going on. Pray for that man.

I got to play volley ball with the other missionaries on P day last week. It was a ton of fun, and me and Elder Stewart were frequently setting each other up to dominate. 

Now I have to go for real. Again, have a nice Christmas!

A Tale of Many Stories

Our ward mission leader is also an ENT. He loves telling us about the surgeries that he performed between our visits and showing nasty pictures to us. When he learned that Elder Stewart had stitches in his head, he jumped at the opportunity to offer his assistance at getting them out when it was time. We went to his house on Tuesday and got them all out. The ward mission leader sent a text to Elder Stewart's mother saying that he successfully pulled the stitches out for him. She texted back, obviously riled up. It turns out, he never told his mom about the experience at the bike shop. However, things are ok! She's good, and he has healed up nicely. 

The baptism date of our friend has been changed again to Tuesday the 19th. Apparently a mutual activity is more important than a Daughter of God entering into the straight and narrow path into salvation... ;) I am thrilled because she chose me to play violin with a pianist at her baptism. Because of it, I was able to play a violin for the first time in over three months yesterday.

We had the opportunity to take a senior in high school on a mini mission. Things weren't going too well this week, because everyone has the excuse that they are getting ready for Christmas. However, with this guy with us, we received two new investigators. That is pretty crazy, since that's about how many we get in a month! It's good to have him with us.

One night, I woke up two times in a row because my blanket fell off and the cold got to me. I then had a fantastic idea. We resolved to turn off all of the heat in the entire apartment, and then turn the heat up in our bedroom all the way with the door closed. The room never really heated up, and when we woke up in the morning, it was like walking outside. Lesson learned: Don't listen to me when I say, "I just had the best idea!"

I neglected to say, a couple weeks ago, I leveled up and received a golden tightlist. It is a large golden metal ball with a rod that it is held by. It has a much higher summoning power and is a sight for sore eyes. If you ever ever feeling down, just take a glance at it and feel your troubles melt away.

We had a zone conference this week. I was able to play the piano for O Holy Night while my companion and two others sang. It wasn't too amazing, but if I had a video of it, I would totally share it.

This week has been rather insane in terms of eating food. For the first time ever, I ate a radish, a cherry tomato, Okra and a fig. I don't really understand why people like radishes, but they are alright. Okra isn't something that was meant for the body. I didn't quite like the fig, but it is tolerable. In the course of my life, I have suffered many trials and hardships, but nothing could have prepared me for the calamity that is within a cherry tomato. I slowly put it into my mouth and bit down onto it, spewing horrid juices all over my tongue. I was thrust into a world of terror, regretting each bite I took. Each bite gushed juice further, dropping my soul further out of my body. Eventually, the shell of my body swallowed the liquid terror, ending my days.

There was also one person who fed us this dinner that was kind of good, but it had something within that I am unable to eat. Shrimp. I was trying to be good, so I gradually ate the food around it, but a single shrimp was on my plate, staring me down. When no one was looking, I quickly grabbed it with my hand and threw it into my lap, where a napkin was waiting. I then pulled my planner out of my shirt pocket, put it in my lap, hid the shrimp behind it, and then pushed it into my shirt pocket. The smell rose up to my nostrils, indicating that this was a bad plan. I snuck it out of my shirt pocket and shoved it straight into my pants pocket. I moved a little bit and became nervous that it would get smashed, and leak its contents into my pocket. I took a "bathroom break" and shuffled over to my coat, where I hid it in my coat pocket. Then, after the dinner appointment, we proceeded to the Ward mission leaders apartment where I thrust the shrimp to the depths of the trashcan. 

On one night, we were forced to travel down an exceptionally large hill in order to reach our dinner appointment. The hill lasts about two miles, and most of it is an incline, with just a few flat parts. We had stayed as long as we could, and then had to retreat back up the hill to get to another appointment. Things were very difficult, charging up that hill, and it was raining a bit. I became very fatigued and wanted to fall over into a puddle and lay there. Before giving up, I asked in a prayer for the strength to make it all the way up the hill in order to be on time to the appointment. I then received strength to keep going and made it all the way up in about 25 minutes. My legs were burning, and I still wanted to fall over, but we made it and arrived for a sweet lesson.

There's my week for you. There would probably be more stuff in this email if I didn't forget my journal AGAIN.

Night in Bethlehem

My first Tag Picture!

Elders with the Sister Missionaries

JUMP!

Light The World

I received a picture from the mission leader and a message.  "Merry Christmas Sister Ruth!  Day 5 of Light the World is Honoring thy Father and Mother so your son thought this was an appropriate way to celebrate!  He's doing a wonderful job!"

A Day at the Hospital

I forgot my journal because today was pretty busy, so this email won't be too amazing. But might as well talk about the hospital first.

So we were volunteering at a bike shop. I was stacking up tires to the max. It was a sight to behold, and that one guy from Cars, Luigi or something, would be drooling. I then heard someone yell from the other room. I came over to see, and my companion had blood just streaming down his face. Instead of being concerned, I just kinda stood there, like, "Dang, you look pretty sick right now." Elder Stewart was getting down from something and gripped a pole to steady himself, and the pole came out of the wall and hit him in the temple. There was a lot of blood, but we got him some gauze and put a bunch of pressure on it and we successfully stopped the bleeding in a couple minutes. I was actually surprised at how quickly we ended it, since head injuries are so brutal. 

Anyways, we drove over to an emergency room and sat for a while. Since I have been coughing SINCE SEPTEMBER 10TH, they made me wear a mask.  So I was sitting with a mask while Elder Stewart had his head wrapped to hold the gauze. We then decided that we definitely shouldn't be here, so we traveled down to a different place, and they said that they were not allowed to treat him because it was a head injury. They sent us to a different place, and we were finally in business. A doctor gave him six stitches and then we were free. It kinda took our entire day, but it sure was a fun day! He will be getting those stitches out tomorrow I think.

The wine lady got to come with us to see a girl get baptized. I haven't been to a baptism in a long time, and so I was amazed. The spirit is super intense so it was very good to have the wine lady there. She can not wait to be baptized. She will be baptized on the 20th by my companion. 

I can't think of much more to say because my memory is not very great :( So I'll have to cut my email short this week, sorry about that! 

Just one thing I learned this week:  If you can try really hard be positive and super nice to everyone, even people who are rude to you, things will be really great! Sorry for the short email. I'll do a better one later! as in next week.

What a fine pair we make

Nemo is my tree.  Notice my ornaments!

We share the same sky

Sister Missionaries with us

At a training

Good Gravy

While being on a mission, I have read the Book of Mormon twice, Jesus the Christ and Our Search for Happiness.  What is happening to me?  That's more books than I've read in my entire life!  I am also on Doctrine and Covenants section 51 as of writing this on November 27, 2017. 

We went to KFC for lunch one day.  Elder Stewart has a fantastic sense of humor.  I opened a bowl of gravy and a ton of it launched out and got all over him.  He said, "Good gravy, I've been shot!"  He later dropped his planner and it landed in some gravy.  He cleaned it, but says it will always smell like gravy, reminding him of this great day.

Today I learned some people think Jesus has already come in the form of a woman.  He says that He will not come as a woman or a wanderer.  I've heard there will be many false Christs.  I know that they will have the power to perform miracles, but it is of the Devil.  Jesus will come down from the skies and everyone will know. Jesus will ask them about the marks in His hands and feet.

My bike tire was flat when we came back to it, and now we're waiting to be picked up.  I must go!  Bye!

A Mighty Miracle

More on the Wine Lady Saga! We had a few plans to go to member's homes to teach people, and she was invited without us knowing. (Rest in Peace, our plans to teach the lesson we prepared.) It is becoming a bit difficult to teach because she finds it very difficult to hear that her prior baptism is not valid to become a member of our church. At our dinner on Saturday, the members just started answering all of her questions, and she struggled understanding answers that she received. Things went on in this manner and she left early because she didn't understand. We assumed that we were taking her off date for baptism because of it. 

She then magically showed up again at Bishop's house for dinner the next day. We took the mission president's advice and called them on Friday to ask if they would invite someone, and also what lesson we could teach that would benefit them the most. We had a lesson planned, but were unable to teach it. The wine lady started asking many many questions, and Bishop handled them like a champion. I was very grateful for him. He was teaching with incredible skill. She loves to interrupt, and he found a way to get her to stop talking in a very respectful manner and fully answer her questions. Because of him, she is back on date!
What a miracle. 

Bishop lives in the country, and he has a big patch of ground with 10,000 yards of dirt which was on an ex-hill. It is now flat until the edge, where there is a dangerous steep drop off. When we were driving home, we were on a road that is 55 mph, and bishop looked far up the hill and saw her car lights driving the wrong way and into that patch. He started driving in reverse very quickly and flipped us around, and then we charged up the hill to her rescue. Just before the edge which would prove certain doom, the thick mud gripped her tires and wouldn't let her move. We drove into the dangerous thick mud and strapped chains to the cars. It seemed like we were stuck for a moment, and then the car was able to move, and we towed her to safety. I am glad she had the chance to be saved by the one who oversees the entire ward. I was very grateful that we were able to have this miracle with her.

I really really like Christmas with all of its decorations and happy people. Because of it, I bought Christmas lights and strung them around my apartment, and it makes me really happy.

When we talk on the phone, if it is with another missionary of the same gender, we say, "bye, Love you." One morning I was talking to the sisters and then hung up. Elder Stewart was in the bathroom, and he thought I said that to the sisters, and he was so surprised that he cut his lip while shaving. We later confronted the sisters and they confirmed that I did not say, "Love you".

We leveled up by taking on a crazy intense quest. It was to carry 600 eggs and 20 bags of lettuce across a building and store them in a fridge without dropping any. The first time we took on the quest, we failed because some lettuce fell off the the cart, but we were given a new chance. We went back, loaded the cart to the max, and made it all the way. Once we closed that fridge, XP Flowed (video game speak)  everywhere and we leveled up! It felt real good.

If you know anything about me, you'd know that I am a bit of a picky eater. I am pleased to announce that for the first time, I have been eating salads and vegetables and beans like no ones business.  I even had tofu and mushrooms for the first time, and it wasn't miserable. 

There's my week. I hope you guys have a fantastic week, too.

I don't know what this is.  Should I be suspicious?

Let the Christmas season begin!

Love the RAV4!

Semi Normal Week

I am aware that most missionaries have withdrawal issues when they come out. I just didn't expect my withdrawal to be music. I am really struggling, not being able to play on my violin or piano. When I do get to play piano, I can't play the music that I want to because it is not a church song. I'll be alright with church music for now, I suppose. I even played the piano for the primary in sacrament meeting today. They sang I Know My Heavenly Father Loves Me.

We brought the Wine lady to a members home to have family home evening on Monday. She actually loved it and wants to come back to it every week. Speaking of Wine Lady, we had an appointment with her on Friday. She no showed us. She is an EMT, and we found out that she was in the passenger seat of an AMR vehicle, and it tipped on a turn. She is a bit bruised, but shes ok. She is still doing alright, and loves having us over. She came over one night and gave us some hot chocolate.

We got three new investigators this week! One of them is this fantastic African guy. He is so much fun to be around, and his laugh is contagious. We were going to teach him yesterday, but he wasn't even in Washington.. That was odd.

We found many people throughout the week who would love to learn more. Unfortunately for us, the majority of them happen to live in other areas. We handed plenty of people over. 

At the end of one of the nights, I was feeling a bit grumpy. The sister missionaries are in a four person apartment across the way, and two of them came to our door at like 9, particularly scared. They said that someone was in their apartment because they were being stalked the other day. Elder Stewart grabbed a banana to rumble, and I just brought my fists, because I knew that my grumpiness granted me extra strength to throw down. We entered the sisters apartment while they waited outside. I started opening closets and stuff, and then I heard girls screaming. Elder Stewart found two other sisters hiding in a closet and immediately threw the banana at them. We then hurried out of the apartment because of missionary rules. 

That's enough excitement for one week. Or not really. See ya guys!

Rock a bye baby

Got music?

Why don't you have cash on you, Elder? The truth is priceless!

Elder Stewart and Elder Ruth at the bike shop

Call The Cops

Our investigator, the wine lady is doing great! She kinda disappeared for a while and no one had any contact with her. She was just taking a spiritual break in order to ponder and see if this is what she really needs to do. She decided that it is, and she is moving onward! We are probably going to bump up her baptism date. 

We went to teach her the Word of Wisdom this week. After a really great lesson, she informed us that she found out about the Word of Wisdom, and then proceeded to drop all issues related to it. She had been entirely clean for five days before we even had the lesson! That's pretty odd, but hey! She's doing great!

I have a golf ball that I am very fond of. We call it the Tightelist. We make stories about how it is some grand thing that can be used to summon people. One day, I put it in my glove, and was curious if I could use it like that. I went to the closest door and knocked away. A 60 year old man who served a full mission answered the door. He was so happy to see us! He hasn't been to church in 30 years because his wife isn't religious. He talked to her and she told him to come, and so he came to church and sat with us. He took the sacrament for the first time in 30 years. Miracles, eh

We volunteered at a library one time, and the library hosted a dinner to thank all of the volunteers at St Mary's Catholic School. The mission office missionaries really wanted us to come, and so we did. At the dinner, there was a large raffle, and me and my companion both won something! He won a gift card to a restaurant that is out of our area. He gave it to the guy who drove us all the way over. I won a large basket, full of tons and tons of tea. I really wanted to take it to a pond and pour some in, just like the founding fathers, but another man really wanted the tea for his daughter, so I allowed him to take it. What a night.

I am pretty amused by the fact that the prize I really won was a basket full of lotion and other random things, but when they saw that it was a guy who won, they switched it for tea.

And now, time for the cops! So, we were walking around a shady neighborhood, minding our own business when we saw some 17 year old guy from Russia hanging out in his shorts and a tank top. Its way too cold for that! We went to talk to him, and he was really enjoying our conversation. He stayed on his side of the chain link fence as we talked. Suddenly, he started shaking and got really weird, then fell onto the fence and continued shaking. My companion was very concerned that the man had just become possessed by an evil spirit. I was like, "Well.. thats unfortunate.. But don't worry, he's fine. It's just a seizure. Go ahead and call the ambulance over." I then squatted down and made sure that he was still breathing and stuff. He never lost a pulse or choked, so we just waited until help came. The guy's neighbor has security cameras which caught the situation, and he didn't know what happened, and so he called the cops on us, thinking we killed his neighbor or something. But things cleared up very quickly when the video was shown, and so we were allowed to leave.

So that's just a few of the crazy things that occurred this week. You guys all have a fantastic week. Remember all of your wonderful blessings, because they are greater than you think. 

Check out that balance

Is this an awesome bike or what?

Birdie on my shoulder 

Poptart in a pan.  Betcha you never thought of this.

Transfer Week

It's transfer week! You know what that means! I will be staying in my same place, and I get to stay with my same companion. I am glad to stay because of some people in particular, and I am ecstatic that I get to stay with Elder Stewart and continue driving him insane with my antics.

Do you remember the lady who was drunk and then she started taking lessons and came to church with us? On the spookiest night of the year, we had a lesson with her at another member's home. It went really well, and in the end, I invited her to be baptized. She excitedly accepted, saying that she would've been baptized yesterday if possible. My luck has changed! She has been baptized before in another religion, and in my experience, the people who have been baptized in the past are adamant about not getting baptized a second time. She is one of the reasons I am glad to stay here. I will get to see it through to the end.

We have been doing service at a bike shop every week. If any stranger goes to the shop and does 20 hours of service, they will earn a bike. There is five of us who do it, and we do it for two hours a week, and so we've earned like three bikes. Because of us, any missionary who comes out and doesn't have a bike can come in and take one for free! It's exciting for us, because we have turned the bike shop around. We painted nearly the entire thing, cleaned things up, organized, and made it a friendlier place. The owner loves us and is very grateful for our help. He fixes missionary bikes for free when they help him. Thank goodness, because mine has been giving me trouble with the chain. Like once every other week, the chain falls off and I have to stop and fix it, and my companion doesn't notice until he's ridden four streets away.

One night, we were riding our bikes up some crazy intense hill in the rain. It was coming down so hard that I was having trouble seeing. We were on our way to a media referral, meaning that someone went onto LDS.org or something and requested to meet with missionaries. We had to travel through a gate which was open, and then continued up a miserable hill. When we got to the home, we found out that it was just a member who went to a temple open house and filled out a comment card, saying she loved it. 

"That was alright, I suppose." I sighed as we got back onto our bikes. The hill we had just traversed was extensively long, and the cold rain made it worse. "Well, lets just try and find someone." We began our ride through the cold rain again. In a moment, we were traveling at high speeds through the stormy night. We flicked on the flashlights on the bikes to increase visibility. The rain started to fall quicker. I was temporarily blinded from being struck in the eyeball with a drop of liquid terror.

A bad feeling crept into my heart. I wasn't sure what was wrong, but the feeling got even worse. I squinted through the air, searching for any sign of disturbance. A glint of light reflected off of a gate which wasn't there before.

"Elder!" I cried. We grabbed our brakes as tight as our freezing fingers could allow. My brakes stopped me near immediately, but Elder Stewart skidded for at least 30 yards. He came to a complete stop less than a foot away from the gate. I caught my breath and dismounted the bike. "Good grief, Elder, you almost ended your entire career." I wiped water from my forehead and slapped his back.

"I know! That was scary."

"Who do they think they are, not allowing representatives of Christ to leave this neighborhood?" I angrily spoke while grabbing the bars of the gates. There was no emergency escape switch, and the space beneath the gate wouldn't allow our bikes to fit through.

"Imbeciles." He spat while shaking his head. I sighed and stared up the hill. There were no houses until fairly high up, and our legs were already nearly dead.

"I will not allow this." I turned back towards the gate and gripped it.

"Elder Ruth."

"Unacceptable." I pushed on the gate. It failed to budge. I pushed a little harder. No budging was to be had. "I will liberate us." I pressed my feet into the ground and pushed as hard as I could. The gate moved a fraction of an inch. "I can do this." I whispered to myself. I pushed even harder, and a crack of freedom showed itself. 

"Elder Ruth!"

"No!" I cried through the dark rain. "I can do this!" I pushed as hard as I could and made a space wide enough for him and his bike. "Quickly! I can't hold open the rift forever!" My strength was rapidly leaving me. Elder Stewart quickly shuffled through with his bike. "It's too late for me, just get out of here!"

"Not without you! He yelled back. We locked eyes in determination. He ran back into captivity and grabbed my bike. He was once again on the other side of my bike. 

"Remember me!!" My arms shook, nearly depleted of enerygy.

"Come on, you can do this!"

"THERE'S ONLE ROOM FOR ONE--oh yeah..." I slipped through the gate and allowed it to slam shut. I fell to the ground and breathed a sigh of relief.

Anyways, the church is true. Seriously. It can be hard sometimes, most of the time, or all the time, but Jesus suffered for everything that you suffered for so that He would know how to comfort you. I must go, I am out of time.

Leaves in Spokane.  Can you spy the parking lot?

At the car wash

It's mighty cold here

Busy baking with my jammies and man apron!

Ta-da!

Meet Nemo our plant

HEY!  The white stuff has arrived

Bug Battlefield

This week wasn't as full of shenanigans as usual. We had a pumpkin carving contest, and I really think that mine should have won. Why wouldn't it? I carved the words "Student loans" into it. That's the spookiest thing anyone's ever heard of.

When we were headed to our dinner appointment, I didn't expect a fight.  "Elder Ruth, we're going to be late, we have to run!" We started to sprint along the sidewalk with vigor, determined to arrive when we should. The sun was beating down on us, streaming sweat across our foreheads. I gripped my bag to keep it from bouncing along.

"Why didn't we just ride our bikes?" I cried while hopping a bush which blocked the sidewalk. A low hanging branch sliced across my hairline, dropping a small blood drop across my white shirt. I kept running through the stinging pain, clenching my side to ease the achiness. We had been running for several minutes now. I had already tripped my way across several blocks, resting only at the stoplights. 

Something large blocked the sun. I looked up to see a sign of the second coming. Swarms and neighboring swarms of tiny blue bugs entered the area. They patrolled the skies, searching for intruders. We pushed on in the name of the Lord and breached through the first line of defense. Instantly, thousands of tiny blue bugs littered our bodies. I clenched my mouth shut to keep them from reaching my core.

"Elder Ruth!" My companion cried. He was covered in the blood of our enemies. The stains of bugs littered his white shirt. Their alive bodies crawled across his chest, attempting to identify the bodies of their fallen brethren. We picked up the pace, desperate to escape the area. The clearing was in sight.

"Hurry!" I demanded. We ran even faster. The end of the madness was 20 yards away. 15 yards! 10 yards! 5 y-- "AUGH!" I had been shot! I gripped my eye in pain breached through the ending. I had been temporarily blinded by a rogue fighter, now inside of my eye. We pushed through the pain and made it to the dinner appointment, sweaty, tired, and covered in blood.

Anyways, it says somewhere in 3rd Nephi that God knows what we need before we know. I had a really rough day on Friday, and I read the scripture on Saturday. After it, I prayed that God would bless me with what I needed to feel better. We then went to an appointment at a lady's house who had five kittens running around and playing. One of them loved me and let me hold it while I taught. Needless to say, my mood was completely changed and I felt much better. Well played, God. ;)

Remember the wine lady from last week? We taught her the Restoration and brought her two friends along with us. She absolutely loved it! She hugged my companion against his will after I dodged her slap happy arms. Every time she sees us, she tells us, "Thank you for changing my life". We brought her to church again and she loved it so much. She is making so many friends and is so happy to have found the truth. 

She has been a part of many religions and she says that ours is what was missing from her life. After all, we do have the restored church of Jesus Christ, so it does have all the pieces. We will invite her to be baptized this week and I am fully confident that she will gladly accept it and drop all alcohol instantly. She loves religion more than anything else. We also got someone else on date for baptism this week, but I wasn't there. We had companion exchanges, so. Yeah! There's the stuff of this week. Not too eventful. 

Balcony from a previous letter

In disguise, but the name tag kind of gives it away, eh?

Scary pumpkin because it says "Student Loans"

A Picture!

At a training and he now has a camera!  Expect pictures Monday!

What Really Happens

This is a post from Elder Ruth's mom. 

Elder Ruth talks alot about his adventures with food.  He seems to keep the heavy stuff out of his weekly letters.  I wanted to include a few of his experiences.  Please continue to pray for the missionaries.  They are young people suddenly thrown out to the big bad world.  I like a quote from Gary E Stevenson, "You have the Savior of the World on your side .  How can you fail?"  We all have Him on our side, but we still have life experiences and sometimes it's not fun one iota. 

At one point, Elder Ruth replies, "But know that things suck occasionally, I just remember that Jesus is with me and all of these challenges are possible to overcome. I know because Nephi told me".

"I haven’t had to use my happy light too frequently. I used it one day when it was the worst day of my mission. We went to an "emergency." At a couple’s house, where they yelled and swore at each other and their house smells like freaking crap and it was awful. We helped them calm down by just listening and helped them clean up the house. They are doing good now, but it was really bad and took a toll on us. We then went with the ward mission leader to a guy who is extremely depressed. His life is trash. He has MS and so his wife left him and stole the kids. Everything is bad for him, and he cried in front of us. He told us the only reason he hasn't committed suicide is because he doesn't want his kids to think that it’s ok. I went home emotionally dead. I drew a picture of me walking while kinda crying, and Jesus is walking with me, pulling one of my arms around his shoulder and His other arm is around me, and He is saying, "I'll carry you if I have to." And then the next day, the song Glorious, from Meet the Mormons came on, and it made me cry when I saw that picture while listening to it. But they were good tears, I promise."

Another time he wrote, "Literally everyone does drugs, even the kids on their way to school. Lots of drugs are legal here. There are cigarette butts all over the place. Way more than I would've ever guessed. There's also a street in my area with a sign that says the area is loaded with prostitutes and your vehicle will be impounded if you pick one up. There's a strip club not far from here. It's even advertised on a bill board. They found a body of a woman in a dumpster a couple streets away. That wasn't good. That was on Thursday. I think where we live is much prettier, looks cleaner and far more friendly. There is so much garbage everywhere. Our home is amazing compared to here. I miss clean streets and air.

He concludes with, "I’m being completely honest when I say that I am 100% good right now. I don't dwell on that stuff at all. I am actually kinda smiling right now because I love emailing everyone. But yeah, through reading the scriptures and listening to good music and seeing the light in the few people we do teach, I am pretty satisfied."